A Season of Faith's Perfection

Think of something great you had achieved by the time you were 17. Like, watched Die Hard 47 times, gulped 15 boiled eggs in 20 minutes, co-founded the 'I love Steffi Graff' fan-club. No? Not even one of the above? How pathetic are you? Hold on, dont quit on me. I was just kiddin'.

Lets begin with the article now. This article, is dedicated the teenage sensation, the blonde bombshell from Russia, the cutie who begins every other interview answer of hers with "you know" - the one and only Maria Sharapova.
This eye-candy caught my eye back in 2003. It was the first round of Australian open and altough she had lost, she had the crowd drooling and shouting for more. And did I mention those legs. The famous 'Nicole Kidman - legs' were completely wiped out from my memory after the match.

In no time it was July, time for Wimbledon and I had a new favorite this time. I had been looking for one since Hingis had the whole ankle thing going on. Even though Maria was an underdog, doubtful even to clear 2nd round, I still rooted for her. She did clear the 2nd round, in fact she reached the 4th round, where she was defeated by a fellow Russian. She had shown enough character to keep me rooting for her for the years to come. C'mon! who am I kidding, all I was impressed with, were her looks. She was this Hottie, who I felt was the perfect successor of Anna Kournikova. And like Anna, I was expecting Maria to be seen alongside some Latino amigo in two years.

Lets fast forward to tournament that proved me wrong. It was Wimbledon, 2004 and Maria was getting better by the hour. The stage was set for this teenager to make her point. I was always more interested in the women's matches for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious and the second being, Federer. That guy made Men's tennis so predictable. Although he wasnt at his peak, the scarcity of formidable opponents made his job easier. Not that I wanna take anything away from the current God of Tennis.

One match that I distinctly remember is the one against Daniela Hantuchova. Though it was a piece of cake for Maria, but watching these two angels play was sheer bliss. Maria sailed through to the semis with no real scare. But I wasn't expecting her to win against Davenport. I mean all credits to Maria for making it to the semis, but her opponents so far were 'Nobodys'. As expected, Maria lost the first set, that too 6-2. I wasn't expecting a comeback either. I mean, c'mon shes playing against the top seed, WTF do you expect?
To my surprise, the second set reached tie-breaker and Maria conquered the second set. Then there was no stopping her.......or me. Then and there I knew she could do it. And believe it, she took the third set 6-1. She was like 'Neo' from The Matrix, unaware of her real potential. Given the time, I knew she would come into her own.

It was D-Day. The enemy was the monstrous Serena Williams. Just one glance at her on the other side of the nets is enough to send jitters down the spine of novices. Was I asking too much of the Russian beauty. For the first time in the tournament, I thought, she looked fragile. And this was even before the match started. Even though Serena was not at her physical best, still she was threating enough. But all my demons were put to rest when Maria took the first set 6-1. It was like David ripping Goliath's heart out. It was awesome, ecstatic, euphoric....I am out of superlatives here. In the second round, Serena tried to make a comeback, but in vain. Maria had not only survived the Serena scare, she had walked all over her. There was a new kid on the block and she wasn't going to be the underdog no more.